A genealogist is hunting for as yet untold personal stories of World War Two. Renée Hollis is working on the project for the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, After all the researching and writing done on the Second World War over the past decade or so, you'd think there'd be little left to unearth about the war years.

The Dunedin Medieval and Renaissance Society, aka The Rare Byrds, is about to mark a decade of making music - and puppet shows - that hark back to medieval times.

Over the last decade she's been involved in films including Vai, Moana and The Orator and set up a successful casting company, all while teaching at the National University of Samoa. Actor, writer and director Fiona Collins is now back in Aotearoa, living in Rotorua. She's about to show New Zealand audiences her contemporary family drama AloFA that premiered in Samoa and Western Samoa.

Dunedin 'poet provocateur' David Eggleton has big plans for his two year tenure as New Zealand's Poet Laureate. Since the 1980s the the multi-award winning performance poet, critic, editor and freelance journalist has spoken truth to power and wrestled with issues like identity in his distinctive no-holds-barred poetry.

It's taken a year to get from bright idea to a plan of action. But the new Coalition for Books is holding its inaugural meeting at the Booksellers Association Conference in Auckland this weekend.

A 1943 modern-dressed wartime production of Shakespeare's Hamlet was Dame Ngaio Marsh's first of many productions for the Canterbury University Drama Society. The director and crime writer's script for that 1943 production is being published for the first time, along with the original score by Douglas Lilburn. Polly Hoskins is behind Ngaio Marsh's Hamlet: The 1943 production script - her book also includes archival photographs and Dame Ngaio's illustrations to assist with the actor blocking for the production. She started researching Dame Ngaio Marsh as part of her honours dissertation at Canterbury University.

Where are the female philosophers? Why are women silenced? Who can tell us how to live? These are three questions on the back cover of poet and publisher Helen Rickerby's fourth book of poems How to Live. The book combines poetry and the essay in bold witty new way to mess with biography and re-examine history from a women's perspective. Helen is also the publisher of Seraph Press.

Ben Crowder and Carl Bland are the duo behind one of New Zealand's most innovative theatre companies, Nightsong. Carl writes and then helps Ben direct, supported by leading designers and actors. This is the duo who introduced a life sized giraffe into Bruce Mason's study in their last play Te Po. Ben and Carl have been working together for At least 14 years, originally with the late Peta Rutter. Their fifth work Mr Red Light premieres in Auckland on the of 30th August before touring nationally.

This weekend marks the beginning of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Aratoi, the Wairarapa's Museum for Art and History in Masterton. Dame Robin White, Aratoi's patron calls the museum it the Wairarapa's taonga. It's a treasure house but also hasn't been shy of some cutting edge contemporary art, drawing visitors from around the country. We speak to collection manager Bronwyn Reid who has been with Aratoi for 23 years.

Antifashion is a term that's been used to describe design that is explicitly contrary to the fashion of the day. It's Alternative. And it's inherently political. Grunge fashion reacted against punk fashion and the excessive costumery that went with 80s pop music. But it goes back even further: to a backlash in Victorian times to the uncomfortable styles of dress for women - the first wave of feminism. In New Zealand we arguably have a distinctive indigenous anti-fashion. Two key figures are fashion designer David Roil of Ngati Porou and Te Atiawa descent and artist Suzanne Tamaki of Maniapoto, Tuhoe, Te Arawa descent (and known for her work as part of the Pacific Sisters). David and Suzanne are two of three who have dubbed themselves the 'unholy trinity' for an exhibition of their garments, film and accessories in Wellington opening on Friday. The third is Charmagne Anthony. Charmagne is also into alternative upcycled garmentry and for the exhibition has created an installation which is a cabinet of curiosities consisting of some of her own collection of made and found objects and they are more oddity than opulent.. The Unholy Trinity is at Wellington's Potocki Paterson Gallery 23rd to 31st of August